chairman, honorable members -- >> oh, and before i do, dana rohrabacher from california has joined us, he's a valuable member of the foreign affairs committee. and the next ranking member from new york. thank you for coming. yeah, we appreciate it. he's going to be the ranking member of the full committee, so we're pleased to have both of you here today. and with that, we'll go ahead with your statement. and if we could keep your statements to five minutes, it would be great. >> it will be. mr. chairman, honorable members, thank you for the opportunity to testify. iranian officials sometimes quip they play chess while americans play checkers. increasingly, this appears to be the case in the caucuses and the surrounding region. while many policymakers describe the islamic republic as a regional power, the iranians themselves now describe themselves as a, quote-unquote, pan-regional power. iranians have a sense as strong as that of russian nationalists who pine to exert their influence over the states of the soviet union. azerbaijan and georgia are front and center in this conception. t